It won’t be long before the trees on Cherry Hill are blooming and the grass will be turning green around Capaha Park’s Municipal Band Shell.
Fred Lynch’s blog in The Missourian had a Frony photo of a November 11, 1957, Veterans Day memorial service at what was described as “the newly-built bandshell in Capaha Park. What is interesting about Frony’s photo is how tiny Southeast Missouri Hospital looked in the background.
[Style note: The Missourian’s story has it spelled as one word – bandshell – but I see it’s spelled as both one and two words. I’ll go with two, which makes my spellchecker happier.]
It’s been years since I was at a concert at Capaha Park, but here’s what a Jackson’s band concert looked like last summer.
You can click on the photo to make it larger if you’ve forgotten what green grass looks like.
I didn’t know Frony to ever use color film, especially back in ’57. This is a rare photo!
Nancy, the color photo is mine. If you follow the link, you can see Frony’s 1957 shot on Fred’s blog.
Actually, Frony did shoot color for some of his commercial work.
OK, you caught me, either I need new glasses or just slow down when I am reading!
Frony’s picture is how I remember the area the most. Baseball diamond, Wescotts car lot and the big hill below the Hospital. Good memories.
It could serve as a fine fortress during some long ago water balloon fights.
…I can almost hear Mrs. Jackson singing the “National Anthem”, as she seemed to do on many summer nights as the band started its concert.
I ran by the Band Shell many hundreds of times in cross country in High school and college. I even ran up the Southeast Hospital hill in my dad’s combat boots many times. I had heard that Norval Jones did it, and I wanted to be like him, king of the world. Record holder in the 880 at Central and a Lifeguard at the pool, check on both those. Life was simple then, or was it that we all had more immediate goals.